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Serious question: Urine as a nitrogen source for organic composting
Chuck Banshee found:
this interesting paper from the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2007, 55, pages 8657-8663 titled: Use of Human Urine Fertilizer in Cultivation of Cabbage (Brassica oleracea)––Impacts on Chemical, Microbial, and Flavor Quality http://www.nku.edu/~longa/classes/ca...esources/docs/ cabbage.pdf my question is HOW best to keep the nitrogen in the compost from turning into ammonia gases and simply venting away. I have to ask why ? As an academic exercise? Not much reason to save it. Urine is pretty cheap and fairly renewable for most of us. In a compost pile I would let it go do it's job unhindered. Unless you test/ analyze your homebrew, hot or cold, your only guessing as to its nutrient content. So the urine is just feedstock and not a nutrient at this stage. As for using urine in your soil, you and others gave some good info as to how best to use. I did read excerpts from one of the Finnish team's three experiments wherein “Surendra K. Pradhan, K. Holopainen and Helvi Heinonen-Tanski of the University of Kuopio in Finland collected human urine during the winter of 2007-2008 from several eco- toilets in private homes. The urine was stored for about six months at 45 degrees F and tested for microbes and bacteria. The team mixed it with wood ash collected from a household furnace, and found the mixture was just as good as -- or better than -- conventional chemical fertilizer.” So I would assume urine was relatively shelf stable for at least that amount of time/temp. Here is a lead on her email if you want to ask first hand: . WA State's land grant site on Composting : http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/fu...tals/index.htm Another link that maybe helpful w/ your quest: http://ciitn.missouri.edu/cgi-bin/pu...3&c_id=2007009 I do have to say that while the average person's urine maybe safe there is increasing concern about Environmental Pharmaceutical Persistent Pollutant (EPPP) which do show up in edible plant, albeit in low doses. Always test or know your source well! good luck |
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Serious question: Urine as a nitrogen source for organic composting | Home Repair |